Take A Chance On Me
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: "Wanted: travelling buddy. Preferably interested in Pokémon. Must be a good listener." Jay's kind of socially awkward – she hasn't been able to hold down a travelling companion throughout a whole year. All she wants now is a friend who can talk back, but it isn't quite as easy as it looks… Tracey/OC. Accepting OCs


"And I _still_ beat her, even though she was the one who didn't wanna go with me, because she insisted she was going to win and didn't want to upset me. And there were so many people… And they all had such cool Pokémon! And…"

"Slow down!" Kyou interrupted. "I think you lost me somewhere on Victory Road!"

"Kyouuu!" Jay whined. "I'm talking about the Pokémon League! Aren't you even listening?"

Kyou just laughed. It was always amusing teasing his little sister. "I'm kidding, I was listening. Just slow down a little and actually _breathe_ between talking."

"Very funny," said Jay sarcastically, taking a swipe at his head.

Kyou ducked automatically. "So the Pokémon League, huh? Where did you place?"

"Top six," Jay beamed, feeling proud of both herself and her Pokémon team. "I still can't believe it! We were right up there with some of the best trainers in Kanto!"

"Aww that's great, Jay! Well done!" said Kyou proudly. "Oh here, can you hold onto this little guy for me for a second?"

He passed her a young Oddish that had been running around hyperactively for the last ten minutes and thoroughly getting in the way of the Parasect he was trying to examine. Jay sat down on the grass beside where her brother was kneeling and tucked the eager little Oddish into her lap.

"This one's new, isn't he? You only had that grouchy old Gloom last time I was here," Jay remembered.

Kyou laughed. "Oh yeah, she's still around here somewhere," he said, looking around the patch of grassland that they had behind their house. "She made friends with Ginny's new addition after you left."

Ginny and her husband Wes were their next door neighbours. They were always happy to assist with Kyou's breeding programmes and look after the Pokémon when he had to visit other cities for more research. Cinnabar Island was only very small – with a population of just thirty-six people. But Kyou and Jay owned the largest plot of land on the entire island, left to them by their parents. It definitely came in handy for Kyou's dream of becoming Kanto's most renowned Pokémon breeder, walking in his mother's footsteps.

Jay however didn't really remember either of their parents. Their father had left before she was even born and their mother had died when she'd been very young. She and Kyou had been brought up mostly by Ginny and Wes, who had been close friends with their mother. Their uncle had helped out with additional funds, but as the island's gym leader he didn't really have the time for much else.

Jay had never resented their irregular family life. How could she miss the birth parents that she'd never really known? Ginny and Wes had practically been like her parents growing up anyway. And Kyou had always been there for her too. What could she possibly have to complain about? Plus she was optimistic by nature – complaining wasn't really something she did all that often.

"So you're concentrating on grass types at the moment?" Jay asked, petting the leaves on the top of the baby Oddish's head.

Her brother usually concentrated on specific Pokémon types at a time. When she'd first left to start her journey as a Pokémon trainer he'd been working with fire types. He'd actually given Jay her very first Pokémon – a baby Charmander that he'd bred himself. Charmander had been her most loyal companion throughout her journey and they were now closer than ever.

"Mostly grass and bug at the moment," Kyou replied, without looking up as he charted Parasect's stats on his clipboard.

"Really?" Jay brightened. "What bug Pokémon have you been looking at?"

Although Jay's preferred Pokémon type was fire, like a lot of the island's citizens – fire types were what Cinnabar Island was known for after all – she also had a bit of a soft spot for bug types. The simple Caterpie was actually her favourite Pokémon.

Growing up on the island, she hadn't really seen that many wild Pokémon. The only Pokémon she'd really been around were the ones that Kyou had bred himself. But she _had_ seen plenty of wild Caterpie – they always ran riot in Ginny and Wes's vegetable patch. Jay had never grown tired of watching them when she was younger.

"I thought you might be interested in that," smiled Kyou. He gestured between Parasect and the Oddish that Jay was holding. "So far it's just been these guys, Venomoth, Bellsprout and Exeggcute. I worked with some Caterpie too – can't forget them." He then chuckled. "Didn't manage to breed out the gene that makes them so partial to Ginny and Wes's cabbages though."

"Aww, you could have waited till I was back before you started studying Caterpie!" Jay pouted.

"There's still a couple hanging around the bottom of the garden somewhere that don't seem like they want to leave," said Kyou. "You can have one if you like."

"_Really_?"

Kyou laughed. "How could I breed Caterpie without keeping one for you? I was gonna take these guys through to Viridian Forest to release them properly soon, but I thought I'd let you take your pick first."

"Thanks Kyou, you're the best!" Jay exclaimed happily over her shoulder, already on her feet and dashing down towards the other end of the garden. Kyou just shook his head and returned his attention to the clipboard in front of him whilst Jay searched for Caterpie.

She set the young Oddish down on the ground, who proceeded to weaving around her feet like a drunken child, so that she could use both hands to look through the bushes at the back of the garden. She didn't have to look very far – sure enough, there were several small Caterpie hiding amongst the greenery.

She pulled some of the branches back to get a better look. She could count four crawling about amongst the leaves. She watched them eagerly, excited that she was finally going to be able to have one of these for her own.

No matter how much time she'd spent in the long grass whilst she was travelling, Jay hadn't _once_ come across any wild Caterpie. Many other trainers had told her that they were one of the most commonly found Pokémon in the wild, so why had she never been able to find one?

The only wild ones she'd ever seen were the ones that had liked to roam next door. Before she'd decided to become a Pokémon trainer she'd never had dreamed of attempting to catch one – she'd always been content with just watching and playing with them. But now that she _was_ a fully-fledged trainer she had that desire burned inside of her to catch and train Pokémon herself.

So which one was she going to pick? Whichever ones she didn't choose would then be released into the wild when Kyou next went to Viridian Forest. She inspected each of them individually, trying to decide. One of them was significantly smaller than the others – clearly the runt of the litter. It would be quite cliché to choose that one… But Jay couldn't help but feel that its size disadvantage might mean it wouldn't be able to fend for itself as well in the wild as the others would. With that thought in mind it was a pretty easy decision to make.

"Come on, little guy," she said, stretching her hand out towards the tiny Caterpie. "You can come travelling with me! I'm sure that'll be much more exciting than living in a tree somewhere in Viridian Forest!"

The Caterpie shrank away a little at first, but Kyou took good care of the Pokémon he bred and they grew up trusting people more than they would have done in the wild… It eventually crept onto Jay's hand, who carefully pulled her arm back out of the bushes.

"You went for the tiny one, huh?" said Kyou, as Jay rejoined him. The baby Oddish was still happily following her around.

"How could I not?" Jay smiled fondly. The Caterpie was now crawling up and down her arm.

Kyou chuckled. "Fair warning; he's a bit of a troublemaker. Always hiding or wandering off when I was trying to make the routine checks."

"He sounds like me," Jay joked. "I'm sure we'll get along fine."

"I don't doubt it," Kyou smiled. "Speaking of which, how _did_ you find it travelling on your own? Did you make plenty of friends?"

"Err…"

Over the entire year she'd spent travelling Jay had met quite a lot of new people. She'd even had four different travelling buddies at various points in her journey! But could she really count them as friends when each one of them had decided to leave her as quickly as they'd joined her?

Jay bit her lip. "Well… Sort of…"

Kyou sighed. "What did you do?"

"What makes you think I did anything?" Jay protested.

As much as Kyou loved his little sister she wasn't exactly the best at handling social situations… Growing up on an island with such a small population probably hadn't helped that. She could be overly eager at times without realising it, she was naïve, she didn't know how to take a hint or respect other people's space, and she could certainly talk until the Tauros came home…

"You haven't really travelled on your own this entire time, have you?" Kyou asked concernedly. A year was a long time to not have a friend to talk to…

"No!" said Jay defensively. "Regina travelled with me for a while before she got all competitive about it… And there was Kate too. And Bronnie. And Joe… It's just that none of them really… stuck around that long."

Kyou sighed. He wondered how she'd managed to drive away _four_ different trainers… He was tactful enough not to voice that thought out loud though. "So what's the plan now then?" he asked instead. "Are you gonna be staying here long-term or will you be off travelling somewhere else?"

"I don't really know…" Jay admitted. "Travelling around Kanto and going through the Pokémon League was just… amazing. And I wanna keep going – I wanna do more… But I don't know if I'm ready to travel more just yet…"

She wasn't lying – her journey around the Kanto region had been the best thing she'd ever done. But it had also been extremely lonely at times too. Sure, she'd had her Pokémon with her… But it wasn't quite the same when your only companions couldn't actually talk back. Jay liked having company. She liked being around people. But it seemed she couldn't have both… Nobody seemed to be able to handle sticking with her for that long.

Kyou felt sorry for his little sister. She _had_ changed somewhat since she'd left Cinnabar Island almost a year ago. She had a kind of restlessness to her that hadn't been quite so strong before… He knew that she'd soon grow bored if she just settled back down on the island now. But how could he persuade her to keep on travelling when he knew she'd just end up alone again?

Still, she needed _something_ different to do… She needed to interact with people elsewhere. Staying here on the tiny island she'd always lived on and never meeting new people was never really going to help her…

"Why don't you go and visit Professor Oak?" Kyou suggested.

Professor Oak was an old family friend. He'd been a big inspiration to their mother and then to Kyou too as he'd gotten older. Kyou had visited the professor in Pallet Town on numerous occasions for help with his research and tips on his breeding programmes. Jay had accompanied him multiple times, but she hadn't been back there for the last few years now.

"Professor Oak?" she repeated.

"Yeah. I've got some reports and other notes that I've been meaning to take down to him for a while now… But would you want to take them for me instead?" Kyou asked, feeling it would at least give her something else to do than just sitting around at home. "Then you can tell him about your travels and all the Pokémon you caught."

Jay brightened straightaway. "Yeah! And I can show him how big Charmander's grown!" Professor Oak hadn't actually met her favourite Pokémon companion, but he _had_ been the one who'd given Kyou the Charmander that he'd bred him from in the first place.

"Well there you go then," Kyou smiled. "That's something for you to do. Take some time out in Pallet Town if you need to… Figure out if you wanna continue travelling or not. Just make sure you give the professor some notice first. I know he's never minded visitors, but you wouldn't want to inconvenience him."

"I will, I'll do it right now!" Jay declared. "Did you hear that, Caterpie? I should be able to take you somewhere new already!"

"Hang on," Kyou interrupted. "If Professor Oak says it's okay and you _do_ want to take Caterpie then you'll have to leave one of your other Pokémon behind."

Of course… Jay already had six Pokémon in her party. The Abra, Nidoran and Pidgeotto that she'd caught after those first six had already had to be sent back to Kyou to look after for her whilst she'd been gone. They'd actually been the first thing she'd asked about and insisted on seeing the minute she'd gotten back to Cinnabar Island.

"Oh yeah… I forgot about that." Jay bit her lip. Which Pokémon should she leave behind?

"Why don't you leave one of the grass or bug types that you caught?" Kyou suggested. "Since I'm still concentrating on them right now I can study whatever Pokémon you leave behind whilst you're visiting Professor Oak."

"Okay, that's a good idea…" Jay agreed. "I guess I'll leave Scyther… I'm sure he'll definitely be interesting to study."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Kyou grinned. He'd been itching to have a good look at Jay's Scyther since he'd heard about him. Scyther weren't often captured by trainers, especially rookies. Though Jay clearly wasn't a rookie anymore…

Jay just laughed and turned back to Caterpie. "Well there you go – you're officially part of the team! Now let's go and call Professor Oak!"

XXX

As usual, Professor Oak was more than happy to hear about Jay's intention to visit and he encouraged her to stay for as long as she wanted. He agreed that he was definitely interested in the chance to see her new Pokémon and told her to make her way across to Pallet Town as soon as she could.

So the next morning, after bidding goodbye to Kyou, Scyther and the rest of her back-up Pokémon, Jay set out for Pallet Town. Normally Charmander would travel with her outside of his Pokéball so that she had some company. But being a fire type, he had a natural weakness against water and it stemmed a deep-rooted fear of it. So he remained in his Pokéball whilst they were crossing the sea from Cinnabar Island.

Jay let him out as soon as they reached Pallet Town on the other side. She felt bad that he'd had to be cooped up for so long – he usually spent most of his time at her side. Jay always felt like she needed someone to talk to, even if they couldn't always talk back.

"Check it out, Charmander. This is where your dad was from," Jay told him. Charmander chirruped happily in response.

Jay made her way down to Professor Oak's laboratory. It still looked as impressive as she remembered. She rang the doorbell and waited… But nobody answered. She frowned and rang it a second time, but still nothing. After she'd been waiting outside for five minutes she began to feel thoroughly confused. Professor Oak _knew_ she'd been aiming to get here as early as she could. Surely he wouldn't have gone out, knowing she could arrive to an empty lab…

She tried the door handle tentatively and it clicked open. Now Jay really _was_ concerned… Professor Oak definitely wouldn't have gone anywhere and left the place unlocked. He kept too many valuable Pokémon here. Did that mean something bad had happened?

She pushed the door open and slowly stepped inside, closing it again behind her. "Hello?" she called apprehensively.

There was still no answer. Feeling a sense of foreboding, Jay crept further along the quiet hallway. Maybe Professor Oak _had_ gone somewhere and somebody had then broken in… There could be an intruder in here right now! It happened all the time in those scary movies…

"Char!" Charmander warned her, suddenly alert.

"What is it?"

Jay turned round just as a giant grey blob threw itself at her and tackled her to the ground. She went down hard from the weight of it. "Ow!" she yelped, as she hit the back of her head on the floor. "What the…"

It was a very large Muk – the sludge Pokémon. It didn't smell too pleasant and it seemed very happy to see her. Jay couldn't say that the feeling was mutual…

"Hey, come on!" she protested. "Get off me, I don't wanna play right now!"

But as much as she wrestled with the Muk she couldn't get it to budge. It didn't seem in a hurry to move itself and it was too heavy for Jay to be able to overpower it… Well now what?

"Muk, what are you doing!" exclaimed a new voice. "I'm so sorry, do you need a hand?"

"Err…" Jay looked up and saw a boy that she didn't recognise standing in the hallway, looking rather taken aback. She felt her face colour, embarrassed that she'd been found lying on the floor with a strange Pokémon on top of her. "Yeah… Thanks. That'd be great."

The boy struggled to pull the Muk off of her. "Come on Muk, you need to stop doing this!"

Jay scrambled back to her feet the first opportunity she got. "Thanks for that," she said again, rubbing the back of her head. She grimaced. Ow… That had really hurt.

"Are you okay?" the boy asked.

"Oh, yeah, it's nothing," said Jay hastily.

"Sorry about that," he apologised, trying to push away the poison type Pokémon that now seemed like it was trying to hug him. "This Muk belongs to another trainer. He really likes people."

"I can tell," said Jay, bemused. The Muk wasn't quite so annoying when it wasn't _her_ it was harassing. She looked around. So where was Professor Oak?

"So, erm… Can I help you with anything?"

Jay turned back and saw that the boy was still watching her curiously. She realised then that she had technically just let herself into somebody else's property without permission…

"Oh, I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "I was looking for Professor Oak. Nobody was answering and the door was open so I thought… Erm…" Jay didn't really want to mention that she'd gotten weirdly paranoid when she'd thought the lab was empty… That was probably better best forgotten. She always seemed to make stupid assumptions.

"Oh!" Realisation crossed the boy's face. "You must be the trainer from Cinnabar Island!"

"Err yeah, that's me," said Jay, automatically holding out her hand. She was still confused but that didn't stop her from being polite. "I'm Jay."

The boy pushed Muk away again and shook Jay's hand. "My name's Tracey. I'm Professor Oak's assistant."

Professor Oak had an assistant? Jay hadn't known that. But then it had been a few years since she'd last visited Pallet Town… "You're the professor's assistant? That's so cool!" she exclaimed.

Luckily Tracey didn't appear to be put off by her enthusiasm like most people were. Instead he seemed quite flattered. "Thanks! I'm glad someone else thinks so," he smiled. "Professor Oak's out back feeding the Pokémon. He was hoping to finish up before you got here – you can't hear the doorbell from out there."

Well that certainly made more sense than the ridiculous conclusions that Jay had been coming up with. "That's okay. Do you think I can go and watch him feed the Pokémon?" she asked brightly.

She'd learnt from living with Kyou that Pokémon mealtimes were always interesting to watch… And Professor Oak generally had a much wider variety of Pokémon that what Kyou usually worked with.

"I don't see why not," said Tracey. "Come on Muk, why don't you come and eat something rather than bothering us?"

Jay followed Tracey outside. As always, she was amazed by the wide expanse of land – it seemed to get bigger every time she visited – and the amount of Pokémon running around. Professor Oak hadn't had any Farfetch'd before, had he? Or quite as many Tauros…

"Wow, I've never seen so many Tauros in one place before!" she exclaimed, watching the herd that was grazing on the grass. Though she was soon distracted by Muk finally branching away from them and wandering off. It had clearly gotten bored…

Tracey noticed her watching and chuckled. "It's probably looking for Professor Oak," he explained. "Muk may like people in general, but the professor's definitely its favourite."

Jay laughed. "Lucky him!"

"It looks like it's gone the wrong way anyway. The professor was round here feeding the water Pokémon before I went back inside…" said Tracey, leading the way round to the pond.

He was right. They found Professor Oak feeding a couple of Poliwag, a large Kingler and a mixed shoal of Goldeen and Seaking. Sure enough, he didn't seem to have been interrupted by Muk at all. Jay practically skipped down to the water's edge. She'd never seen Seaking close up before.

"Hi professor!" she greeted cheerily.

"Oh, good morning Jay," replied Professor Oak, looking up. "Glad you could make it. You're certainly looking well!"

"Thanks!" Jay smiled. "I can't wait to show you all of the Pokémon I caught!"

Professor Oak laughed. "And I'm looking forward to seeing them. _And_ hearing about your journey around the Kanto region. As soon as I'm done we'll go back inside and get started. I just need to finish up here first."

"Oh that's okay, I kinda wanted to watch you feed the Pokémon anyway," said Jay eagerly.

"Oh… Well I'm actually nearly finished – these are the last ones that needed feeding. But you can certainly watch when I feed them again later if you'd like?" Professor Oak suggested.

"Yeah, definitely! Can I help too?" Jay requested, full of enthusiasm.

"Of course you can!" smiled Professor Oak, pleased that she was so interested. "I'll run through it all with you later on."

"Great!" said Jay happily.

She turned around, looking for her Charmander. She knew he wouldn't be anywhere near the water. As she'd expected, he was standing a little way back from the pond. But his attention wasn't on her for once; it was on Tracey, who was crouched down beside him holding some sort of pad. He seemed to be making notes.

Jay moved round so that she could peek over his shoulder and see what he was writing. It _was_ her Pokémon after all – she had a right to know. "Oh wow, that's amazing!"

He wasn't making notes at all – he was sketching. And he was very good at it. He looked up when he realised what Jay was talking about. "Oh, thanks… But I don't know if I'd go that far," he said with a smile. He looked a little embarrassed.

"Seriously? But it's really good!" Jay exclaimed.

"Tracey's very modest when it comes to his drawings," Professor Oak explained.

"Aww you shouldn't be modest about it, you should be proud!" Jay encouraged. "You're clearly really talented!"

Tracey just laughed, now even more embarrassed. "Thanks," he said again, looking a little sheepish. He added the finishing touches to his drawing and closed his sketchpad. "Your Charmander's in great condition. Its colouring's really good and the flame on its tail seems very strong. It's clear you've been taking good care of it."

Jay just about burst with pride. She took hold of Charmander and swung him up into her arms. "Did you hear that, Charmander? I take good care of you!" she beamed. "You'd agree with that, wouldn't you?"

"Char Char!" Charmander agreed happily, seemingly thrilled by the surprise cuddle.

"Ahh, this is the offspring from the Charmander that I gave to your brother several years ago, isn't it?" Professor Oak observed.

"That's right." Jay nodded. "Embry's a Charmeleon now though. And Charmander's getting big too!"

"So he is," smiled Professor Oak. "Well now… I'm all finished up here, so let's go and have a cup of tea and look at the rest of the Pokémon that you've caught…"

"Awesome!" exclaimed Jay excitedly. She raced back up to the lab with Charmander still in her arms, beating both Professor Oak and Tracey back inside in her enthusiasm.

**XXX**

**Author's** **Note!**  
Yep, yet another new story! This one is already sooo much fun and so easy to write! I've loved Pokémon for a good thirteen years now so (up to the first few generations at least) I know the fandom pretty much inside out!

I will likely be taking on OCs for some later chapters when Jay's off travelling again. Same rules apply that I usually use. Show me you're interested in the story first (and not just whoring off your own characters) then PM me for more info. If you start sending me some random-ass form that you've found somewhere else then I will NOT accept your OC. And I'll have a moan at you first too. It's simple - if you can't read the rules properly then you're clearly not reading the story either.


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